This came to me from a reader who just got this expiration notice from a Snapnames.com registrar: (domain info deleted)
“””””You registered the domain ….. on 2008-03-29 18:08:57 UTC and it will expire on 2009-03-29. If you want renew your domain for one year please send us 12 € (EUR) with paypal (www.paypal.com) to our paypal account domainrenew@dns-net.de.
Please write your domain name in the subject line from paypal. If you have allways pay the renew fee, please contact us, we will check, why you get this renew notification again.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION – Please read follow information INTENTLY!
We DON’T offer an autorenew grace period. UNPAID DOMAINS WILL BE DELETED ONE DAY AFTER EXPIRATION DATE.
Your domain is after this deletion in status redemption period. You can reactivate your domain until the end of the redemptation period, the service charge for reactivation is 100€ (EUR),prepaid.
If we get no payment from you until 2009-03-29 we will delete your domain…… a day later.””””
Another abuse we allowed registrars to heap upon us.
So if your a day late you have to pay 100 Euro’s to redeem your domain, since there is no grace period.
This is another example of what happens when your registrar has a vested interest in you not renewing your domain to they can get you for huge redemption fees or better yet to keep or auction your domain off.
By the way these registrars just hope their notice lands in your junk mail account.
At least the Euro is down 20% from its summer highs.
I have noticed several domains in the Pending Delete list that are from SnapNames type registrars that the Expire Date is the same day the domain goes Pending Delete and drops.
Example: Expires 12-3-2008 and the domain drops the very same day, 12-3-2008 .
Heck, that doesn’t even give you A Day to renew.
Crazy stuff that should not be happening and one of the reasons I do not bid that much on SnapNames unless the domain is with a registrar I like. 😉
Well, people/domainers should be careful who the registrar is, when buying a domain name.
This is horrible, if not a scam imo.
This is not a owned or operated Snapnames Registrar…they are an independent registrar partner and they have the right to set their own policies. Now that I know this about them, I will have them contacted and ask that they change this policy and even consider removing them from our network.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Thank you Monte! A smart move on your (SnapNames) part IMO.
We all know holding hands with a partner is not done when the other is doing something wrong.
Monte is the man!
At least they made their policy very clear and with a 120 advance notice.
Good luck Monte.
Thanks, Monte; the Oversee family of companies is a class act.
Registrars that use these tactics apparently have no interest in keeping their customers. Who would stay with a registrar like that? No one.
Makes more sense everyday to become your own registrar. Fewer hands in the till.
What most domain owners don’t realize is that the registrar gets charged when the domain auto-renews, regardless of whether the domain owner has paid. Large registrars can afford to subsidize bad renewal habits but a small, drop-only rar probably doesn’t want to waste their registry balance on people who most likely will not renew, so they delete. You can always pay extra to do a restore within 30 days.
Talk about customer service – LOL – this kind of Company’s know for sure how to make the customer never to come back again
IIRC ItsYourDomain.com’s agreement said they had no-grace-period policy prior to their acquisition by Tucows. And as Russ pointed out, not all registrars want to waste their auto-renew balance on non-paying customers.
Of course, with Monte now addressing this, that could change. 🙂
Guy
Just because A registrar has a “no grace period” built into their contract with their customers does not mean they pay Verisign in similar fashion.
Payments to Verisign are determined by the registrars agreement with VeriSign which does grant the grace period to the registrars.
The normal drop cycle allowed to the registrars is the same that most registrars used to offer to customers, before the drop auctions and before the registrars stuck their hand in the cash registrar to take domains ASAP and auction them, off or take Possession of them.
Here is the normal drop cycle:
If it doesn’t get paid for, then the registrar put it to REGISTRAR-HOLD for 30 – 45 days, then it goes to REDEMPTION PERIOD for 30 days, then PENDINGDELETE for 5 days
The registrar does not get charged for the domain until, and only if, they decide to keep the domain after the grace period and issues a renew command.
Now what they do with the customer is a different issue, so Russ this time you are incorrect.
The registrars get to play with a domain, park it, test it, auction it, etc before they have to pay for it.
Nice isn’t it